Orchard Supply Hardware rises from hard times

Shoppers patronize the new Orchards Supply Hardware store in San Jose, Wednesday, May 28, 2014. One of San Jose's old businesses, Orchard Supply Hardware, is moving into a new store next door to the old one in midtown. (Patrick Tehan/Bay Area News Group)
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Patrick Tehan
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SAN JOSE -- As employees emptied out the old Orchard Supply Hardware store near downtown, they left behind an old wall safe about six feet high and three feet wide.

Set up like a maze, Sarah Winchester's Victorian home across town harkens to a time when agriculture drove Santa Clara Valley's economy. As Orchard Supply opens a new flagship store this weekend next to the one built in 1946 , it won't look anything like a maze. And it certainly won't cater to farmers or even suburbanites, but to the urban worker bees of technology living in a far different city.

Orchard has been a fixture in the Bay Area since 1931, when a group of orchardists formed a cooperative two miles away on Bassett Street to share resources and survive the Great Depression. After incorporation in the late 1950s, several ownership changes and flip-flopping marketing schemes, Orchard Supply filed for bankruptcy and was sold last year to Lowe's, the giant home-improvement retailer.

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Across the street, members of the Delmas Park Neighborhood Action Coalition fretted. Lowe's had agreed to buy only 60 of Orchard's 91 stores. The group had lobbied City Hall for years to clean up vacant lots, build more townhouses, apartment and retail shops. Losing the hardware store would slow down the plan.

Neighbors were relieved when Orchard's new management quickly announced plans to build a new flagship store on the same lot.

"I can tell you the neighborhood is very excited about it," said Phil Hood, president of the neighborhood group. He sees the new Orchard as one of the crucial pieces for a resurgent "Midtown," where developers are putting up hundreds of new apartments and where City Hall hopes some day to see a ballpark for the Oakland Athletics, if baseball officials ever allow it.

Company spokesman Mark Williams said the neighborhood is shaping up to become an ideal customer base. But the company can't relax yet. Some retail analysts wonder if there really is a lucrative niche for Orchard between big-box Lowe's and Home Depot and smaller hardware stores like Ace. Lowe's bet $205 million on that niche when it bought the Orchard chain.

When customers walk into the new San Jose Midtown store during the grand opening this weekend, they'll find a much bigger, 37,000 square-foot store with a 12,000 square-foot, outdoor nursery. The building has wide aisles set up in "race track" style and an extremely tall ceiling with exposed beams. An interior brick facade harkens back to when San Jose was the brick-producing powerhouse of the Bay Area, and a kiosk featuring 1930's tool boxes and photos adds to the historic touch.

History oozes around the site of the company's original store. In 1927, future baseball Hall of Famers Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Ty Cobb played next door at Sodality Park during their famous barnstorming tour of the West Coast. Three-thousand fans went wild when the Babe hit a home run in the ninth inning at that old ballpark, which was at what is now the parking lot for the new store.

Instead of trees, the new store's nursery is mostly filled with read-to-go, potted plants. A best seller already is a small, electric grill perfectly engineered for barbecuing on the tiny patios of high-density apartment and condo buildings.

Some customers who showed up for the informal "soft-opening" on Wednesday liked what they saw at the new Midtown stores.

Dustin and Lorraine Gonzalez seem to fit Orchard's customer profile perfectly. They're both 33, have a house in the quaint Rose Garden neighborhood with a cozy backyard, and a 2-year-old daughter.

"Shopping is more personal here and they have what we want," Lorraine Gonzalez said. "And it's closer to us than the closest Lowe's." The young couple did not leave with a load of lumber and cement, either. They bought one potted plant, a Tiki torch and lighter fluid for the backyard.

A few minutes later, representing the older side of the urban market, 85-year-old Larry Lemus purchased a small, propane tank for his barbecue grill.

"First time I came here to buy something I was 19," said Lemus, who has a house in the old, compact Burbank neighborhood. "I buy little things -- tools, fix-up things and plants." Orchard employee Morar Patel is one of about 80 employees who moved over from the old flagship store to the new one. Born in India in 1930, he's one year older than Orchard Supply. After a career in wholesaling in Africa, he immigrated to America in 1987 and soon landed a job with Orchard.

"Prices are a bit higher here," he said, shrugging his ex-wholesaler's shoulders at the new challenge. "But our customers, they come in here and they know what they want. If they can enjoy the experience, they'll come back. That's the main thing." Orchard's new San Jose Midtown store will kick off the weekend grand opening at 6:30 a.m. Saturday with a traditional board cutting by manager Coombs, dedication by Mayor San Jose Chuck Reed and Orchard president Richard Maltsbarger, and music by the Lincoln High School jazz band.

As for the mysterious old safe in the former building, it will stay there until the company figures out how to open it in public.